


For better or worse in sickness and in health

by lettalady



Series: Blips and Blurbs [13]
Category: British Actor RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-15
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26482183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lettalady/pseuds/lettalady
Summary: A Tom Hiddleston prompt: a drabble with Tom that takes place in the middle of the night and an illness being so bad that the hospital is required.
Relationships: Tom Hiddleston/Reader, Tom Hiddleston/You
Series: Blips and Blurbs [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1925065
Kudos: 16





	For better or worse in sickness and in health

**T** om wakes up because she’s in the other room coughing again. Over the past week and a half he’d gotten little sleep because of it. When had she gotten out of bed? She’s got the door to the bedroom closed to try to muffle the noise but he can still hear her.

Yesterday it had turned from the deep rasping cough to this new, gasping half-cough. Before it had at least sounded like she was able to dislodge some of the mucus that had drained into her lungs. Now?

He checks the time. It is nowhere near time for her to take another dose of medication. But the way she’s coughing right now has him worried. 

He pauses in the doorway. She’s got her mouth covered with a towel, trying to muffle the sound of her cough. Tom surveys the place setting on the table in front of her. She had been up long enough to boil a pot of water and had been trying to use that to open up her sinuses. More drainage was the last thing he judged that she needed. She already sounded like she was struggling to breathe.

She jumps when he reaches out to touch her back. She hadn’t noticed him. He jumps too – she’s burning up. She shakes her head and moves away from his touch, away from him when he crouches down beside her chair. “Go back. To bed. I don’t want to – get you sick.”

“What can I do? Make you some tea? Soup?” He wants to help but feels powerless. Fixing her something warm might sooth her probably raw throat but it won’t do anything to help her to breathing. She can’t even reply to his question past shaking her head. He reaches out again to rest the flat of his hand on her back. The muscles in her back jerk with every cough.

She leans forward to position herself over the still steaming pot of water. It doesn’t do much good other than to give her somewhere else to focus when she responds to him. “Not hungry.”

She’d picked at her breakfast. He’d been gone all day but he suspected that she had done the same at lunchtime as well - but then she might have gotten something while out to see the doctor.Tom had arrived home late, well past time to eat and the kitchen looked untouched. The smell of food had sent her scrambling to the bathroom to dry heave when he’d fixed her something for dinner. After that she’d just wanted water to wash out the taste of bile from her mouth. Then she had dosed up on medication and crawled into bed.

“You need to eat something.” Wordlessly she points to the sleeve of crackers on the other side of the table. Tom drifts his hand up to smooth out some strands of her hair. “Something a little more filling.” He stands to start to prep something – something bland so not as to have another episode like at dinnertime – and she begins the struggled cough again. “When you went back to the doctor, did they say that you could take something to help with fever while on the other medication?”

“No.”

“No? And no increase in the dosage for your medication?”

She wheezes and mumbles, her face hidden by the towel. He’s pretty sure he heard her correctly though. “No, Tom. I didn’t go.”

Enough. Enough of her recklessness. Enough of the cough that is only getting worse. Tom turns on his heel and heads back into the bedroom, grabbing a bag and shoving a few random pieces of clothing into it. She doesn’t call out to him to question his actions, doesn’t get up to follow him into the room. That in and of itself is a sign of just how bad she feels. He pauses to put on a pair of shoes and grabs a pair for her before going back into the kitchen with the bag he’d just packed slung over his shoulder.

“Come on.” He stoops to scoop his arm around her shoulders, positioning one hand under her elbow to lift her from the chair. She doesn’t do much to help him get her so she’s standing, but doesn’t fight him either. “We’re going to get you seen by someone, tonight.”

She still has the towel clenched in her hands. He pries it from her to toss it onto the table as he steers her toward the door. His darling wife may be weary but she’s determined to argue. “It’s the middle of the night. Office isn’t open.”

He nods, pausing to snag his keys. “I know. Hospital is though. You’re going to get proper medication and care tonight, even if I have to carry you in there.” 


End file.
